Following last night's forced resignation of Portugal's center-right government, the likelihood that the recent project to restore the 4 public holidays canceled 3 years ago, before 2018, the "Projeto de Lei n.º 749/XII - Restitui os feriados nacionais obrigatórios eliminados" will be approved has increased dramatically.

A few years ago (01-Aug-2012), after much hesitation and debate (15-Oct-2011, 03-Jul-2011, 01-Dec-2011, 18-Jan-2012, 12-Mar-2012 and 14-Nov-2011), a quadripartite agreement (09-May-2012) led to the cancellation of 4 annual non-working public holidays in Portugal: Corpo de Deus (Corpus Cristi), Implantação da República (October 5), Todos os Santos (November 1), and Restauração da independência (December 1st). These 4 annual non-working public holidays were canceled for 5 years (2013-2017). At the end of that period the issue is to be revisited ("A suspensão de quatro feriados, concretizada esta terça-feira, com o anúncio do acordo entre o Governo português e a Santa Sé, será reavaliada ao fim de cinco anos").

This was followed by a constitutional challenge to Portugal's cancellation of 4 annual non-working public holidays, brought by the Communist party and other extreme left parties, but Portugal's constitutional court (Tribunal Constitucional) eventually ruled that the reduction of 4 annual non-working public holidays in Portugal was constitutional (27-Sep-2013), a ruling which did not deter the leader of the Communist Party caucus of Portugal's parliament, a few months later (04-Dec-2013), from introducing another bill that would restore the 4 annual non-working public holidays.